Advance payments to farmers under next year’s feed support program have begun, Agriculture Secretary Charlie McConalogue has announced.
The 67,451 farmers who submitted their applications for the 2023 program before December 5 will receive an upfront payment equal to 57 percent of their total payment.
This compares to 71,000 farmers who have applied for feed subsidies in 2022.
The districts with the most beneficiaries for next year’s program are Galway (6,805), Mayo (6,284), Cork (5,689) and Roscommon (4,227).
Dublin has the fewest recipients under the program with 218 eligible applicants, followed by Louth (695), Kildare (935) and Carlow (962).
The 2023 program is a continuation of the 2022 forage support program and aims to incentivize farmers, particularly dry livestock farmers, to grow forage (silage and/or hay) in 2023 to ensure the maximum amount of cattle and sheep forage is grown.
Successful applicants for the feed promotion program 2022 could apply for the program 2023.
In 2023, if an applicant fails to meet some or all of the program’s requirements, the program will refund some or all of the funds already paid. The ministry has warned that applicants must take care when cutting silage and/or hay on areas designated in the program in 2023.
Announcing the upfront payments, Minister McConalogue said he will seek additional funding for the scheme if farm input prices remain high in 2023.
The program’s online system will reopen in May/June 2023, when applicants will have the opportunity to change the area declared for the program.
If the program is oversubscribed, the payment rate per hectare will be less than €100 per hectare. In this scenario, the ministry reduces the payment rate for all hectares or keeps the rate of €100 per hectare on the first hectares and lowers it on the last hectares.
According to the ministry, compensation payments will be made in the fourth quarter of 2023.
“These (advance) payments, together with the Feed Support Scheme 2022 payments granted over the last few weeks, will further help farmers to better manage the increase in farm input costs, particularly for chemical fertilizers, and the impact this is having on the quantity will have to cope with forage that will be produced and preserved next year,” said Minister McConalogue.
